HOW TO CONDUCT
A TEAM DRAFT

Every commissioner, 4th grade and above, must conduct a draft to set up their teams. Commissioners in the 2nd and 3rd grade are urged to do so, but may assign teams, while commissioners in the 1st grade should assign teams based on schools and friends. The 1st grade league should be devoted to fun and learning skills while the 2nd and 3rd grade leagues become more competitive even though scores and standings are not posted on the WEB. Leagues for the 4th grade and above are competitive and each win and loss is counted and determines the seeding at the end of season tournament.

To conduct a fair draft all coaches in a league should be present at the tryouts for the league in October. Each coach should be allowed to rate the players individually, and to use those ratings in their team selection, however, as explained elsewhere, league commissioners must rate all players individually and make those ratings available prior to a team draft to all coaches. Ratings should be provided for dribble, pass, shot, speed, defense, rebounding, and aggressiveness.

TIMING

At some point prior to November 15, the commissioner must gather all team coaches together. In the event a team coach cannot be present, he/she must send a draft representative, or designate the league commissioner with the responsibility of choosing the team.

DRAFT ORDER

Prior to the draft meeting, the commissioner should place the names of each coach on a small piece of paper and then select the names randomly one at a time, designating the order of selection in the draft, with the first name picked getting the first selection, and so on.

Normally, in a ten team league, for example, the draft order would be 1-10, and then the second round would be 10-1 with the tenth place team getting the 11th selection, and so on.

TEAM SELECTION

The commissioner must do everything in his/her power to get the teams to be equal in talent at the end of the draft. This might include suggesting to a new coach that certain players were rated differently in the past and may not perform exactly as the coach believes. However, it is still the coach's responsibility to select the team.

In the event the commissioner is selecting for a coach absent from the draft meeting, the commisisoner should select the team exactly as he would if he were the coach.

Players are drafted based on their skills in the 7 categories listed above. Every team should have several players who can dribble effectively so speed and dribbling skills are essential. Shooting skills are also needed for scoring. Each team should have several players who can rebound so height, rebounding and aggressiveness are also important. And, each team should consider defense and aggressiveness, particularly if trapping and double teaming are allowed.

The child of every coach in the league is automatically placed in the draft position for the coach’s team based on the decision of the commissioner and the commissioner's official tryout ratings.

NOTE: UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES MAY ANY TEAM CONTAIN TWO FIRST ROUND DRAFT CHOICES. NO TEAM MAY HAVE TWO COACHES WHOSE CHILDREN ARE BOTH FIRST ROUND DRAFT CHOICES, AND BY VIRTUE OF THEIR COACHING, PUT THE TWO FIRST ROUNDERS TOGETHER.

ADMINISTRATION

The commissioner should have a volunteer present at the draft meeting who is responsible for keeping track of which coach selects which player, and then updating the draft list to make sure a child is not selected twice, or not selected at all.

It is fun to have a large chart made up which lists the draft order with room to show which palyer is selected in each round so that all coaches keep track of which players are on which team.

It is imperative that draft rounds of players be kept secret outside of the draft meeting as we do not wish to embarrass any players.